Monoprice - don't believe (all) the hype!!!

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:05 pm

supersatisfier wrote:Ok, got an order in to audiopile! Hoping this is the minimum price point for usable cables that need no assembly! I gotta say, though, the name is a bit regrettable. . . I can't recall many good things coming in the shape of a "pile."

Do let us know what you think when they come in. I'm about to buy a spool of cable to wire up my rack and patchbay, and I've been planning on buying from GLSAudio/SpeakerRepair.com, but I'm open to Seismic Audio (just got a snake from there and it seems decent) or Audiopile.net. Not sure which place I'm going to go with yet. The connectors at the SpeakerRepair.com look nice and prices are good.

supersatisfier · Post by **supersatisfier** » Thu Oct 17, 2013 3:53 pm

Got the Audiopile order yesterday. Checked all the cables on an ISA One with the gain all the way up. . . SILENCE! (At least, close enough.) A/Bed the Audiopile cables (the cheap Starline ones, not quad-core) against my nicest cable and found no discernible difference in sound, let alone crackling, popping or rumbling. The cheaper cables did exhibit a bit of noise on severe movement, but HEAPS better than the Monoprice. Too bad, those thick cables and over-engineered connectors on the MPs were pretty cool. . .

Bro Shark · Post by **Bro Shark** » Thu Oct 17, 2013 4:31 pm

I ordered some of Audiopile's mic stands a few years ago and gave them all away. Poo poo.

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Thu Oct 17, 2013 6:36 pm

I've had good sucess with the Monoprice headphones, and a few of their cables. Audiopile and Seismic are great. I have a few stage snakes from EWI (Audiopile) and they work fine. I even had a bass trap fall on one its still trucking along. I have some insert snake cables from Seismic and they have giving me no trouble for the past 3-4 years. They sound fine and the build quality is great.

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Thu Oct 17, 2013 8:04 pm

Brett Siler-- And just where have you been, young man???

GJ

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:49 pm

I did end up ordering from GLS Audio/SpeakerRepair.com, everything came in the other day. I got a bunch of XLRs, TRSs, and a spool of bulk cable. Very impressed with everything. Cable may not be the Mogami, but it's certainly better than some cheaper cables I've had in the past. Good weight, not all weird and kinky, or tacky feeling like some weird cables are. The TRS plugs look pretty normal, nothing too special but nothing I can complain about. The XLRs are pretty impressive. They're a lot like Neutriks I've used on some of my cables, definitely really good knockoffs. The cases are nice, solid metal. Strain reliefs are just like what comes in the Neutriks. The piece with the cups for soldering to pops out so you can easily solder the cable before assembling it. I was gambling a bit by trying these out but I'm seriously impressed. I'm excited to wire up my new DIY rack, with my new soldering iron (my first Weller!).

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:18 pm

Gregg Juke wrote:Brett Siler-- And just where have you been, young man???

GJ

Well this summer I moved, twice. It really sucked, ha. Set up a reduced set up for the time being, working ITB again for now. Not as fun but it works. Mixed 4 EPs, 1 full length, and a few short song song sessions. (I should post some of it in the Listen to My Stuff section) Wrote a lot of my own music. Did live sound for a bunch of shows. Staying busy! Not much time to play on the interweb, plus I feel some people on here are a lot more articulate than me, so I haven't posted much lately.

One cool thing I have learned from Tape Op is to make it work. No matter the space, no matter ITB and just some Behringer preamps, or OTB with a big 32 channel board and fun outboard gear. Just keep working and do the best you can.

Sorry to hijack the thread.

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:26 pm

Bro Shark wrote:I ordered some of Audiopile's mic stands a few years ago and gave them all away. Poo poo.

I've actually had good with their short stands.

Electricide · Post by **Electricide** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:33 pm

any chance the monoprice cables have the ground tied to the XLR jack housing?

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » Tue Oct 22, 2013 8:32 am

Electricide wrote:any chance the monoprice cables have the ground tied to the XLR jack housing?

That's generally not a good idea. Some gear has chassis grounds isolated from audio (pin 1) ground. XLR's have a chassis case ground seperate from pin 1 for good reason. They will become grounded if connected to any mic body or any XLR input, unless the designer forgot these things.

Electricide · Post by **Electricide** » Tue Oct 22, 2013 11:52 am

I know, I'm just speculating that maybe if the cables came from monoprice with pin 1 to chassis, that moving the cable around is causing some intermittent connection to ground and cackling. Just a shot in the dark.

I've ordered av cables and mounts from monoprice, and 1/8th" cables. The vga cable with the audio cable attached had a problem, the vga and audio shared a ground and you'd get buzz in the system whenever the audio cable wasn't plugged into a source.

But, other than that they've been fine.

goose42 · Post by **goose42** » Tue Nov 19, 2013 7:37 pm

Firmly in the YMMV camp, I've used both Audiopile/EWI cables and Monoprice cables, and had good luck with both. My main reason for switching to Monoprice was that I'm eight bajillion miles from the Audiopile warehouse and shipping is often as much as the cables

FWIW, the Monoprice cables I got advertise 16 gauge wire, where the EWIs used 22 (same as the expensive ProCo DynaMike cables I've had for years).

Also, I often use a MOTU 828. The jacks in its I/O field are very close together, and the housing on EWI cables is really fat. The Monoprice cables are more streamlined, so they actually fit without stressing the jacks.

Speaking of EWI, the 4-channel 3-way mic splitter is a damn steal at around a hundred bucks!

holidayhell · Post by **holidayhell** » Wed Nov 20, 2013 3:21 pm

The hdmi and usb cables have been fine.

The audio cables (1/4 instrument and mini plug extension) were total crap. Worst 1/4 cables I've ever bought.

dgrieser · Post by **dgrieser** » Tue Nov 26, 2013 7:25 am

I bought the iPad mic stand holder from Monoprice. Seems OK--it does what it's supposed to do and I'm not worried about the ipad crashing to the floor. I bought a few of the spring mic clips too and they seem fine. I'm over cheap mics and cables though.

digitaldrummer · Post by **digitaldrummer** » Tue Nov 26, 2013 8:48 am

I recently bought a couple really short ADAT optical cables from Parts Express. I tried them and neither worked. I confirmed it using another known good cable and I tried these on several devices. I called Parts Express and they shipped me out another pair and those worked just fine. It was kind of weird to get 2 bad optical cables (there was no apparent damage) but they took care of it quickly.

I also bought some Amphenol TRS and XLR jacks there - cheaper than Neutrik so I was not sure what to expect but I was really happy with them. soldered very easily, easy to grip, and no fit problems so far.

Mike

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Monoprice - don't believe (all) the hype!!!

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